Goffs Orby Sale

KILDARE, IRELAND - Classic winners Jim Bolger and Joe Joyce shared the spoils for top lot status on the final day of a red-hot Book 2 session of the Goffs Orby Sale on Thursday when their respective fillies by Teofilo and Mehmas sold for €135,000 apiece.  Bolger's fingerprints were all over Joyce's Mehmas filly, who the breeder consigned himself under his own Cahermorris Stables banner. It was Tally-Ho Stud who landed the filly whose dam, Smart Flies, won and reached a rating of 86 when in training with Bolger.  As...

KILDARE, IRELAND - Bloodstock agents Richard Ryan and Federico Barberini provided the entertainment at Goffs on Wednesday when going hammer and tongs on a State Of Rest filly consigned by Castlebridge, who went the way of the latter for €150,000. Ryan opened the bidding at €50,000 on the State Of Rest filly and, despite making one last lunge at auctioneer Andrew Nolan before the hammer fell, his instruction on the phone came too late and he was forced to fill the runner-up spot on the most expensive lot sold on...

KILDARE, IRELAND - For the second time in Goffs Orby Sale history, a full-sister to Blackbeard led the way - this time with Coolmore's MV Magnier going to €1.9 million to secure the Glenvale Stud-consigned daughter of No Nay Never.  It was at this sale in 2022 when Run Away commanded top lot status when selling to Richard Knight for €2.3 million. In the meantime, Blackbeard has made a good impression with his first crop of yearlings while his little brother Charles Darwin has proved himself to be a chip...

KILDARE, IRELAND - John Stewart made a welcome first visit to the Goffs Orby Sale on Monday and, despite taking a little time to acclimatise to the European style of bidding - with auctioneer Nick Nugent partly to blame - the Resolute Racing man spent €1,555,000 on four lots, headed by the sale-topping Blue Point colt at €675,000. Stewart rolled his sleeves up pretty early in the session. Sitting directly in front of Nugent in the seats below the rostrum, he spent €230,000 on the McCracken Farms-consigned Ghaiyyath filly [lot...

One of Henry Beeby's favourite sales pitches is that, if you supply Goffs with the horses, his team will do the rest. Well, Denis Brosnan took the Goffs chief at his word last year and, what do you know, Croom House Stud's Frankel colt became the most expensive horse sold at last year's Orby Sale at €2 million to Godolphin.  Croom House Stud is to Irish breeding what Rolex is to watches or Gucci to handbags. The County Limerick operation keeps a small but select broodmare band and has produced...

Luke Lillingston will not want 2025 to end. The magical year for Mount Coote Stud has consisted of 42 individual winners, including headline acts like Santorini Star and Laurelin, who is one of the poster girls for the Goffs Orby Sale.  And rightly so. Under the care of Graham Motion, the Orby graduate has won all five of her starts in America and is understood to be on course for the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland next month. "You never want to toot the horn too...

We've seen ebullient yearling markets in Japan, America and France so far this year and now Britain enters the fray with what for many is a favourite sale of the year.  No matter how long it has now been Goffs UK, the sales company formerly known as Doncaster Bloodstock Sales (DBS) will always be Donny. More confusingly for those who are not aware of its history, it will always have its roots in the Scottish Borders rather than Yorkshire, but that's a story for another day. Donny is Donny, and...

Graduates of the Goffs Orby Sale are eligible to win €1 million in bonuses across the UK and Ireland during the 2025 Flat Season. The announcement marks an expansion of the Goffs Two Million Series to the UK. Bonuses of €50,000 will be paid to the winning connections of 10 juvenile contests in Ireland and 10 in the UK as part of the Goffs Two Million Series. The list of nominated races is now available to view here on the Goffs website. The Goffs Two Million Series is open to...

Galbertstown Stables boss Pa Doyle described trade at Goffs this week as "very strong for the nice horses" after selling a Sioux Nation half-brother to Diego Ventura (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) to Tally-Ho Stud for €135,000.  That was the highest-price paid on Friday as the curtain came down on Book 2 where a 72% clearance rate [down 3% on last year] was posted. The turnover for 322 sold was down 18% to €6,603,800 while the average fell by 8% to €20,509 and the median by 14% to €15,000.  As is clearly...

Croom House Stud boss Denis Brosnan opened up on how a gamble to back Goffs with some of the farm's best yearlings this year paid off when the County Limerick-based operation's Frankel (GB) colt (lot 323) out of Listed winner Loch Lein (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) brought an Orby Sale-topping €2 million to Godolphin on Wednesday.  Godolphin also snapped up a €600,000 Wootton Bassett (GB) colt (lot 415) from Croom House Stud and Brosnan, one of the most successful businessmen in Ireland, said that Goffs chief Henry Beeby lived up...

A Frankel (GB) filly (lot 465) brought €1 million from Anthony Stroud on behalf of Godolphin during the second day of the Goffs Orby Sale Book 1. Consigned by Staffordstown, the bay filly is a half-sister to multiple group winner Sandrine (GB) (Bobby's Kitten), who has been placed in both the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes and G1 Falmouth Stakes for breeder Kirsten Rausing. The dam, four-time winner Seychelloise (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), is a daughter of G3 Prix d'Arenberg heroine Starlit Sands (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Lot 465 is the second...

Joseph O'Brien was the big winner on day one of the Goffs Orby Sale with the trainer coming away with a number of six-figure yearlings, including the €850,000 Blue Point (Ire) half-sister to Classic contender Bay City Roller (Ire) (New Bay {GB}).  Billed as one of the highlights of the sale, the sister (lot 114) to the unbeaten G2 Champagne Stakes winner was bought by European clients Agrolexica International Trading BV, who confirmed that the filly would be on her way to Owning Hill.  The sale-topping figure almost brought Tom...